Storee Powell

News Correspondent - Northern Utah

As a freelance reporter for the Cache Valley Daily and Utah Public Radio, Storee covers women's issues such as women in higher education and women's health. Storee is an award-winning journalist, having won more than 13 awards for her work at UPR. Storee is a graduate of Utah State University and works at the Center for Persons with Disabilities at USU doing PR and marketing.

It's easy to think it will never happen to us or someone we know, but 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.Raising awareness and support for this issue can't just be done by women. That's why a group of male students from USU put on their best pair of heels Friday, to show their support for the women in their lives. UPR's Storee Powell reports on the annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event.

That was the message of the one billion rising flash mob that took place Thursday, also known as Valentine's day, with the goal of ending violence against women. While flash mobs, dancing to those lyrics, occured around the world on Thursday, Logan got it's own taste with a flashmob in front of the historic courthouse and in the USU Taggart Student Center, all ages of women and some men, participated in the dance.

Audience members at the annual Polar Plunge got a thrill as community members dressed from Elvis to Ninja Turtles, jumped into freezing water Saturday. The divers did the deed in the name of good clean fun and to raise money for Utah Special Olympics.

President Obama announced more key administration posts Friday, and Cache Valley resident Sachin Pavithran was among them. The Utah State University graduate has been appointed to the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. The board helps develop policy relating to disability.

Women's issues have played a large part in the 2012 campaigns, with many "zingers" coming from candidates surrounding these issues. Romney's "Binders full of women" quickly became an Internet sensation. But women are more than political pawns, they are the largest voting bloc in the country and have the potential to sway the election. How will they vote and why? UPR's Storee Powell talks with Professor Tim Chambless of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah to put women voter trends into context.

While seniors don't tend to vote for a party in the majority, they are the voting bloc with the highest voter participation. And with an aging population, the group continues to grow. As voter ID laws pop up across states, many worry that seniors will be disenfranchised. UPR's Storee Powell talks with AARP Utah's Laura Polacheck and Professor Tim Chambless of the Hinkley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah about why they believe the law is meant to suppress voters.

Earlier this month the National Association of Mental Illness held awareness events to help dispel myths and promote understanding. This week Utah Public Radio introduced you to three of our contributors -- April Ashland, Ryan Cunningham, and Storee Powell. Today, we continue their brave conversation in the hopes that listeners can feel better prepared and open to understanding mental illness.

Inspired by Mental Illness Awareness Week this month, a group of Utah Public Radio interns and reporters began sharing their personal experiences with mental illness. These were not stories about their observations of others who deal with mental illness; these were their stories.

During Part 2 of our series on Mental Illness Awareness series, we begin listening to a conversation between Storee Powell, Ryan Cunningham, and April Ashland as they work through some of the myths associated with mental illness.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress established the first full week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week to recognize the efforts of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to raise mental illness awareness. Since then, mental health advocates across the country have joined together during the first full week of October in sponsoring many kinds of activities.

In the first of a three-part series, UPR's Storee Powell discusses the continuing stigma of mental illness with NAMI Utah's executive director, Rebecca Glathar.

I was driving to work (which just happens to be USU!), and as I was parking in the stadium, I decided I had to finish listening to Tom's Access Utah on July 25 because I was stunned. It was on homeless people in Utah, and I was so enthralled by the depth of the conversation I just couldn't turn it off. I realized the value of educating people about this issue, and that is the kind of service UPR provides to Utahns.

Utah State University environmental engineering Ph.D student, Margie Borecki, is a finalist for the Women Tech Awards for academic excellence. Her goal to provide clean drinking water for the world along with her stellar GPA earned her spot among four other students. The Women Tech Awards are meant to create visibility and networking for women working or studying in the technology field. Thursday, 20 women from across the country will be awarded at the Fifth Annual Women Tech Awards.

Listen to Storee Powell's full interview with Donna McAleer, 1st District Congressional Candidate. McAleer will debate Ryan Combe in Logan on June 14 in anticipation of the Democratic Primary on June 26.

Listen to Storee Powell's full interview with Ryan Combe, 1st District Congressional Candidate. Combe will debate Donna McAleer in Logan on June 14 in anticipation of the Democratic Primary on June 26.

In the 1st Congressional District's Democratic primary on June 26, Utahns will decide between the candidates Ryan Combe and Donna McAleer. The winner will try to unseat the Republican incumbent Rob Bishop, who has represented the 1st Congressional District since 2003.

Both contenders said they will not be "career politicians" and are in favor of campaign reform.

Graduating in lower numbers from college is not the only problem Utah women face according to the Utah Women and Education Project. Utah women are more likely to graduate in a field traditionally held by women, and receive lower pay. Those women who forge ahead in higher education, especially beyond 4 years, in non-traditional fields face many obstacles. Rachael Christensen, a PhD student at USU in the dairy nutrition program, has been a cowgirl her whole life, experiencing discrimination not only in the field, but academia as well.

March is women's history month, and the national theme Women's Education, Women's Empowerment is applicable not just to students, but also to women in academia. Storee Powell talks with Utah State University's Dr. Christy Glass, a gender scholar and researcher, who not only studies the struggles of women entering academia, but experiences it first-hand as a female associate professor.

Former Utah Governor Olene Walker was recently appointed to the Utah Women's College Task Force - a committee dedicated to increase Utah women's aspirations for higher education. Gov. Walker talks with UPR's Storee Powell about her early desire to become educated, and her work to inspire others to do the same.

March is National Women's History Month, and the 2012 theme is Women's Education, Women's Empowerment. Although women now outnumber men in colleges nationwide as a very recent phenomenon, the same is not true for women in higher education in Utah.

Storee Powell explores this topic in UPR's Women's History Month series by talking to those who research this issue and to the women breaking through Utah's glass ceiling in higher education.

March is National Women's History Month, and the 2012 theme is Women's Education, Women's Empowerment. In the first of our series on this theme in Utah, we hear from Susan Madsen, Director of the Utah Women & Education Project and professor at Utah Valley University. Findings from her recent studies explain why women in Utah graduate 6% less than men. While they enter college at the national level, they graduate at a much lower rate.

More information about the Utah Women and Education Project at http://www.uvu.edu/wep/.

The USU Fringe Festival and Logan's Reel 2 Reel film festival will come together in a new annual event: the Logan Film Festival. The newly formed organization hopes to bring independent films from around the world to Logan. Film entries are due by April 7. UPR's Storee Powell spoke with Gary Saxton of the Logan Downtown Alliance, the organization spearheading this project.

Over 1,500 Utah State University employees received an email this month for the opportunity to apply for a Hazing Awareness Scholarship. USU scholarship coordinator, Patty Kohler, explains to UPR's Storee Powell what is fishy about this email and how to avoid scams like this in the future.